Porteus LXDE

Porteus LXDE is an open source Linux operating system, a community-driven remix of the Slax distribution. It is based on Slackware Linux and built around the LXDE (Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment) project.

Porteus is known for featuring its own Software Center application that allows novices to install, updated and remove packages from the system, a unique dependency-resolving package manager, support for multiple languages, and an ultra fast boot process.

Distributed as 32-bit and 64-bit Live CDs

This edition is distributed as two Live CD hybrid ISO images that can run on both 64-bit and 32-bit instruction set architectures. After download, one can burn the ISO image to a blank CD disc or write it into a USB flash drive (recommended for persistence sessions).

Boot options

The boot menu of the Live CD is exactly the same as on other Porteus editions, allowing users to copy the live session to RAM (requires at least 1GB of system memory), boot the live environment in text mode, initialize a PXE server, boot the currently installed OS, or access the PLoP boot manager.

Similar to other Porteus flavors, the LXDE edition is also persistent by default. This means that users can modify and save configuration files or downloaded documents, but only if they boot from a USB flash drive.

LXDE is in charge of the graphical session

As mentioned, the lightweight LXDE desktop environment is in charge of the graphical session of this edition. It provides users with a single taskbar located on the bottom of the screen, from where they can launch applications, switch between virtual workspaces or interact with opened apps and the system tray area.

Default applications

Default applications include the PCManFM file manager, GNOME MPlayer video player, Pidgin multi-protocol instant messenger, Geany IDE, Audacious audio player, Transmission torrent downloader, uGet download manager, and Mozilla Firefox web browser.

Bottom line

Summing up, Porteus LXDE proved to be an extremely fast Linux distribution that includes a collection of hand picked applications for common tasks, perfect for a low-end personal computer or laptop.

What is new in this release:

• kernel:
• upgraded to latest LTS: linux-3.14.15
• kernel config: added ecryptfs, ipv6 iptables and aloop kernel modules
• initrd:
• fixed handling of .wh files in 'changes=EXIT:' cheatcode
• kernel.xzm:
• upgraded to broadcom-sta-6.30.223.248
• core-xzm:
• security fixes: curl-7.36.0, dhcpcd-6.0.5, openssh-6.6p1, openssl-1.0.1h, shadow-4.1.5.1
• firmware: added rt3071.bin and rt3290.bin, added missing rt3070.bin and rt3090.bin symlinks, upgraded to latest radeon firmware
• fixed 'changes-time' script when run from guest account
• fixed 'dump-session' script which broke after introducing 'changes-ro' cheatcode
• Laptop-Mode-Tools: blacklisted 'usbhid' module in usb-autosuspend.conf
• upgraded package manager to USM-3.1.4
• xorg.xzm:
• security fixes: libjpeg-v8a, mozilla-nss-3.16
• fixed burning Audio CDs through pburn by adding missing packages: audiofile-0.3.6 cdrdao-1.2.3 esound-0.2.41 libao-1.1.0
• Porteus-Settings-Centre fixes by brokenman
• kde.xzm:
• security fixes: gnupg-1.4.17
• reverted to bluedevil-1.3.1 and libbluedevil-1.9.3 to fix bluetooth support under kde4 desktop
• firefox.xzm:
• security fixes: flashplayer-plugin-11.2.202.394, mozilla-firefox-31.0
• chrome.xzm:
• upgraded to 36.0.1985.125
• opera.xzm:
• Opera remains at the same version 12.16.1860 but with a flash upgrade to 11.2.202.394.
• libreoffice.xzm:
• upgraded to version: Version: 4.3.0.4
• drivers:
• upgraded to: amd-catalyst-14.4-porteus-v3.0.1, nVidia-173.14.39-porteus-v3.0.1, nVidia-304.123-porteus-v3.0.1, nVidia-340.24-porteus-v3.0

What is new in version 3.0:

• CORE:
• Replaced Porteus Package Manager with a new version (GUI and CLI ... CLI si called 'usm')
• We no longer need to maintain a porteus module repository and the new version will pull slackware package across 5 repositories and convert to modules.
• Upgraded kernel to linux-3.13.6
• pxe-server: added support for random IP from private pool when nothing is defined
• Configured logrotate to rotate system logs once they reach 500KB in size
• Added: archivemount-0.8.3, libvdpau-va-gl-0.3.2
• BROWSERS UPGRADES:
• Mozilla Firefox 24.3.0
• Google Chrome 33.0.1750.146
• Opera 12.16.1860
• Adobe Flash Player 11.2.202.341
• OFFICE UPDATES:
• LibreOffice 4.2.1
• PRINTING:
• Fixed the missing test page for hp printers
• Added support for some legacy Canon Pixma printers (note that the compat-32 module is required for this to work with 64-bit porteus) - thanks Blaze and Francois!

What is new in version 3.0 RC2:

• added a new udev rule to eliminate error message popups when unmounting loop devices (e.g. when unmounting a module).
• tweaked the Zukitwo-ob theme slightly so the menu bar and window manager bar match in color.
• fixed mimetypes so clicking 'show files' after extracting with filer-roller opens the folder in Thunar instead of audacious (lol)
• /etc/lxdm.conf now points to '/usr/bin/startde' which is a symlink to startlxde or startxfce4, respectively. This fixes a bug where switching between lxde and xfce with saved changes causes you to get stuck at the login screen. Thanks to fanthom for suggesting the fix :)
• added '7za' from the p7zip package and symlinked 7z to it. This should resolve our problems with file-roller not being able to open or create some file types, as file-roller defaults to 7z for several filetypes if 7z is present; the 7z we have in 001-core is actually a symlink to 7zr which is a stripped standalone binary that is only capable of handling .7z files. '7za' handles more filetypes but still not as many as the full 7z application that is much larger still; if you are still experiencing extract/compress proplems through file-roller please let me know the filetype so I can evaluate our need for the full package, and/or install the full p7zip package to get this functionality.
• patched file-roller so that extracting iso images works with the newer libarchive
• recompiled gvfs to add Samba and http backends (note these backends need extra packages to work). this was compiled against samba-3.6 from Slackware 14.0 as it won't work against Samba-4 from Slackware 14.1 -- it should still work at runtime against samba-4 but please let me know if you run into troubles. http support requires glib-networking, gnutls, gsettings-desktop-schemas, libproxy and libsoup (already in Xfce).
• recompiled audacious-plugins and a newer version of mplayer against the newer ffmpeg

What is new in version 3.0 RC1:

• Set mimetypes in ~/.local/share/applications/mimeapps.list to fix activation on double click and various other mimetype defaults (thanks brokenman for the help)
• Added winff, at-spi2-atk and core (new gtk+3 deps), gcr, libtasn1, p11-kit (new gnome-keyring deps)
• Recompiled from latest source
• Upgraded to Linux kernel 3.12.4
• Porteus-installer-for-Linux: fixed installation on MMC cards and when udisks2 helper mounts the media under the /run directory
• cheatcodes:
• Added 'changes-ro' cheatcode which keeps saved changes in a frozen state. This is handy if you have set your system 'how you like' and do not want to make other modifications to it.
• Added 'utc' cheatcode which tell Porteus that the hardware clock is set to UTC time and not to localtime.
• Tweaked 'kmap=' cheatcode so now its possible to use keyboard layout variants. Cheatcode syntax is: 'kamp=$layout:$variant', example: 'kmap=pl:qwertz'. Old syntax: 'kmap=pl,us' or 'kmap=pl' is still valid
• kernel config:
• Added squashfs multi-threaded decompression patch (backported from linux-3.13) which should make Porteus even faster on multi CPU machines
• Added support for ACL and Security Labels to all filesystems which supports these features
• Compiled many drivers directly into kernel as there is no point for loading them by udev if they will be used anyway during live session
• core.xzm:
• Removed guest from plugdev group to fix udisks2 issues with unauthorized mounting
• Updated txz2xzm, deb2xzm and rpm2xzm scripts to support converting of multiple packages. Example: 'txz2xzm /path/some_folder/*' will convert all packages from that folder in one run
• Fixed saving to .dat container when it is placed on ntfs partition
• Fixed 'changes=EXIT:' not saving the session with full paths
• Added empty and non executable by default /etc/rc.d/rc.local_shutdown script for users who need to do custom actions before Porteus goes down
• Reenabled lcd brightness control in laptop-mode-tools config
• Fixed broken pns/xpns tools and added possibility for setting netmask to the pns-tool
• Added check to the booting and activate/deactivate scripts for 32bit caches which needs to be updated in x86_64 multilib environment
• Updated 'psinfo' and 'xpsinfo' utilities which now provides more information about the PC Porteus is booted on
• Tweaked activate scripts so restarting of the panel in not needed anymore
• Recompiled ntfs-3g to add extra ntfsprogs utilities not included in Slackware by default
• Added iproute2 and pcmciautils packages along with other Slackware-14.1 dependencies
• xorg.xzm:
• Updated 'watch-xorg' script which should help us getting into GUI in every case
• Updated context menu scripts to display notification rather than confirmation window
• Upgraded opensource 2D and 3D drivers to their latest versions (OpenGL-3.x compatibility for certain GPUs)
• Added ffmpeg with all required deps and opus-tools so Asunder can rip audio CDs to the opus files directly
• Updated gtk tools: gtk-porteus-timeconfig, gtk-soundcard-select, gtk-xkb-select, PPM and updater are disabled for rc's.
• Software:
• Mozilla Firefox 24.2.0 ESR and latest flash
• Google Chrome-31.0.1650.63
• Opera 12.16.1860
• Added src2pkg package
• Abiword 3.0.0
• LibreOffice 4.1.4 (64bit version has 4.1.3)
• Rebuilt based on Slackware 14.1 and recompiled non-standard slack packages from source
• Fixed a bug that resulted in a missing print test page for hplip
• Drivers:
• Upgraded to latest available versions and dropped catalyst-legacy as it does not compile against recent kernel/Xorg anymore
• Added 32bit opengl to 64bit nVidia proprietary drivers

What is new in version 2.1:

• upgraded MPlayer (thanks to fanthom for providing updated source/build)
• added 'changes=/porteus' back to the default boot option
• upgraded parcellite to resolve a bug with copy/paste files in pcmanfm (thanks TomasXu)
• converted a number of icons to .png format and added them alongside .svg's so the icons would work with the openbox right click menu (thanks ncmprhnsbl for the report)
• added 'gifsicle', which is required for creating animated gifs with mtpaint (thanks Rava!)

What is new in version 2.1 RC1:

• Changes common to all desktops:
• upgraded the Linux Kernel to version 3.9.4
• upgraded MozillaFirefox to version 21.0
• upgraded mesa and 2D drivers to latest components
• linux installer: added support for handling folders with whitespace in their name when extlinux is used. LILO still wont accept whitespaces in lilo config.
• linux installer: debugging info is stored in /boot/debug.txt file when installation fails
• nfs replaced httpfs for pxe boot. Copy2ram is no longer required and files in /rootcopy have proper permissions/ownership, added support for storing changes over network when 'storage=' cheatcode in used on the server side
• allowed PXE server to be connected through the wifi.
• PXE boot: added support for clients with multiple NIC's (previously linuxrc was checking only eth0)
• fixed handling of encrypted containers for magic folders in rc.M
• kernel config: added CONFIG_B43_BCMA_EXTRA as per TheDoctor's bug report
• linuxrc: removed unnecessary error messages when 'from=' cheatcode points to nonexisting device
• 'changes' branch which appears with changes=EXIT: cheatcode won't invoke updating of system caches
• fixed 'mopt=' cheatcode so that it works correctly with ntfs3g driver
• added empty and nonexecutable /etc/rc.d/rc.modules to 001core.xzm
• added xf86input drivers for touchscreen devices: acecad, aiptek, elographics, mutouch, penmount
• recompiled qt with xinerama support (not included in Xfce/LXDE)
• added following packages to the devel module: bison, flex, linuxdoctools, nasm, textinfo, yasm, utilmacros and crippledsources
• LXDE Edition specific changes:
• added obconf package for more configuration options in LXDE
• created an openbox menu that includes an entry to open up lxde's "Desktop Preferences"
• added gtk+3 and gtk+3 apps: fileroller (dropped lxarchiver), audacious, transmission, evince (dropped epdfviewer)
• changed widget theme to "Evolve"
• modified lxdm theme/background image
• added volume keybindings for laptop/media keyboards, with my 'pxfsound' gtkdialog script that pops up with the volume level
• added libcanberra and notifydaemon so notifications from ppm, firefox, etc will work